24, Cincinnati OH. Graduated college in 2010 with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology but no idea what I want to do with it. I am extremely friendly and love meeting new people of all backgrounds. Being a sociologist will do that to you.

My earliest memories of life are playing the original Zelda game on NES.

I enjoy writing blogs about video games. I've written a few blogs here on Destructoid, and would love to eventually become a somewhat professional journalist in the video game industry.

My dream job, like most of you I assume, would be working in some facet of the games industry. That, or working at a beer brewery like Dogfish Head, Stone or Sam Adams.

Section 8: Prejudice is a game I feel will probably be overlooked. With bigger releases around the release of S8P, it will probably go ignored. To me, this is quite a shame.

I can’t say that I’m sort of Section 8 super fan. I never played the original Section 8. The only information I had on this game up until last Sunday was from PicoMause’s infamous Section 8 Prejudice party video.

A friend of mine advised that I should check out the XBLA demo, which I did. I thought it was alright. I felt that Halo had better controls and a better overall feel, but I stuck out the whole free trial and thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was a nifty little title. Being the PC dork that I am, I checked Steam and sure enough, it was going to be on PC. Neat!

Admittedly, I was not really in the market to buy a new game. I already had Team Fortress 2, Halo Reach, Counter Strike Source and several other games if I felt like getting into a multiplayer bullet fest. I couldn’t really rationalize the purchase of a new game. Then I noticed it had a pre-order price of $13.49 and would sell normally for $14.99. At that price point, I am willing to take a risk on a relatively unheard of game. Especially if I have played a demo that I enjoyed.

Section 8: Prejudice is a first person shooter, that much I believe is obvious. It is blatantly influenced by the Call of Duty series, Halo series and Tribes series. It feels like if you took those games and mashed them up, and then added a hint of lemony freshness, you would get S8P. While I am a bit sick of the whole “space marine” thing that the gaming industry is obsessed with lately, it is appropriate for this title and it works well enough.

The game has three modes so far. First is the campaign. Yeah, this $14.99 title actually has a campaign. It’s incredibly short (like maybe 4 hours if you go slowly). Frankly I don’t really get why there was a campaign mode beyond a tutorial. The writing is nothing revolutionary, and the plot is standard space marine/science fiction fare. It is not a BAD campaign, I’ve played way worse. It just seems unnecessary.

The second mode is “Swarm.” I believe it is fair to compare this to Halo’s Firefight mode. You fight off swarms of enemies, which get tougher with each wave, while trying to defend a point for as long as you can. I don’t really have anything more to say about it.

Now we get to the bread and butter of S8P: Conquest. This is the real reason you should consider spending $14.99. I’ve easily put most of my time into the Conquest mode, and I’ve been having an absolute blast the past few days.

So I’ve compared S8P to Call of Duty and Halo, and if you see gameplay videos you almost instantly understand why. Your character has an overshield like in Halo. As you get kills and complete Dynamic Combat Missions (DCMs) you get experience points, which increase your rank and unlock new weapon configurations ala Call of Duty.

So why bother with Section 8: Prejudice over Call of Duty or Halo? Well, let me start off by saying this game obviously will not be for everyone. But if you like either Call of Duty or Halo, or hell just really fun FPS games in general, you really owe it to yourself to check out S8P.

Each map has four bases. Each base is uncontrolled at the beginning of the round. The goal is to hold as many of the bases as you can, and complete Dynamic Combat Missions to gain Victory Points. Before the game starts, the host determines the VP goal (default is 1000VP) and whichever team meets the goal first is the winner. One of its unique aspects is its Dynamic Combat Missions. DCMs are random, timed missions that your team needs to complete in order to gain victory points. For the “Elimination” DCM, your team is given approximately two minutes to kill every single member of the opposing team once. If all 16 opposing players are eliminated, your team gets a big VP boost. If one or more opposing players survive the Elimination DCM, your team fails and the opposing team gets some VP.

That’s what I like about Section 8 Prejudice. In most multiplayer games, there is usually one goal: kill your opponents and get a sweet K/D ratio that you can rub in the faces of noobs. It’s not quite like that in S8P. There is still a scoreboard; you can still see your K/D ratio as well as others. But instead of the standard Kills/Deaths/Assists listing on the scoreboard, you have one single number that shows your score. This is because kills aren’t necessarily the most important aspect. You need to work with your team to complete DCMs. You need to call in support turrets, mechs and vehicles to give your team the extra edge. Your personal combat effectiveness is counted, but your teamwork ability is counted as well. Add those two scores up and you get the score next to your name on the scoreboard.

Ignore my terrible score, I literally just joined a game to take a screenshot.

The way you spawn is kickass; you literally drop from orbit onto the battlefield.
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

You can drop anywhere within the combat zone that you like. If you feel like dropping right into one of the enemy bases, go for it. Hell, you can even kill enemy players by landing on them. There's nothing really stopping you from dropping in wherever you like.

Well, that's not true. See that big red circle at the bottom? If you deploy in that circle, AA turrets will tear you to pieces before you even get near the ground.Your character has five load outs. You can customize the weapons and tools in each load out, but you can also customize special stat bonuses.

Yay I'm a fashionista! ACHIEVEMENTS!

You initially have ten points you can distribute into this stat panel for each load out to further customize it. For example, if you’re making an “Assault” load out, put points in “increased bullet damage” and “increased armor.” Sniper load out? Throw points in a stat that will increase your accuracy and stealth to make it harder for enemies to lock on to you.

There are so many neat aspects to S8P. I’ve already typed way more than I thought I would on the subject. I really just wanted to give a brief overview or “first impressions” of this really deep multiplayer experience. I probably took it a bit far, but this game has me really excited, and therefore really chatty. I don’t think it currently has a PC demo available, but if you’ve got an Xbox (lolPSN) go grab the demo and try it out. For $14.99 it’s a super affordable game that is easily worth every penny.

P.S. another neat feature is the stat portal, which tracks your stats and displays them on your own Section 8 Prejudice page. Here’s mine, because I want to show you how 1337 I am. http://s8pstats.timegate.com/pc/user/radiopools/
(At the end of Wednesday night I was easily in the top 5 in all aspects, even 1st in some, but I guess way more people started to play so my ratings went down. Sadface.)